Dexter

I read Lindsay's excellent books - Darkly Dreaming Dexter and Dearly Devoted Dexter - some time ago, and when I heard that there was to be a series based on the books, I was extremely excited. So much so, in fact, that I feared disappointment merely because my standards were so high.

Thankfully, "Dexter" absolutely delivers. The show maintains the uncomfortable atmosphere of the novels with better fidelity than one could ever have expected, and Dexter (played by Hall) is all there.

The visual elements from the show are stunning, to say the least. Disturbing, certainly, but more than that - fascinating. Watching the show, it's impossible to keep from finding a certain agreement in oneself for Dexter. He's a monster, and yet it's completely possible to identify with him.

10 out of 10. This one has a permanent spot on my DVR.

Dexter is easily one of my favorite tv shows of all-time and one of the few shows I can watch all the way through several times over without getting bored. It's hard for me to put into words how much I love this show. The only thing that's not good about it is the ending. The ending was pretty bad but that still doesn't take away from how good the show is overall. You should watch this show for Michael C. Hall's performance as Dexter alone. He's amazing in this. If you haven't seen this incredible show yet just make sure you give yourself enough time because you're going to want to binge watch it as fast as you can. Once you start watching you won't be able to stop.

After four episodes, I'm ready to proclaim this the best show currently on TV, one that may someday rank with the likes of _The Sopranos_ and the first season of _Twin Peaks_ as a contender for the second best TV show ever (after the incomparable _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_; one of the show's producers and writers is former Buffy writer Drew Z. Greenberg, and the cast includes Buffy / Angel mainstay Julie Benz).

Dexter is a sociopath, someone with no human feelings and hence no natural, inner moral compass, and he has an unquenchable blood lust that drives him to kill. But he had the great grace to have been the adopted child of a police officer, who (as we see in terrific flashbacks) successfully instilled in him a complete moral code, which he adheres to on a strictly intellectual level. This is an utterly brilliant concept (which I assume derives from the novels it's based on), one that allows the writers to explore the nature of moral behavior and of what it means to be human (Dexter is, in a sense, an alien).

Another thing the show is doing brilliantly is moving at different speeds in parallel. There is a primary apparent season-long story arc (concerning a cat-and-mouse game between Dexter and a serial killer), and a a secondary arc involving Dexter's sister's police career. The first handful of episodes include a very powerful completed arc concerning one of Dexter's police colleagues and a local crime lord, while two of the four episodes so far have also included a self-contained story spliced among (and playing off) the ongoing ones. I've seen the future of TV season structuring, and this is it.

While the writing isn't quite up to the brilliance of the best of _House_, it's been excellent. The cast and production are terrific. The only reason you wouldn't want to watch this utterly brilliant show is the frequent use of extremely graphic images: there have probably been more severed body parts shown in these first four episodes than in the first four episodes of every other TV show on the air combined. If you can stomach that, tune it for a mesmerizing look at what makes us human -- or inhuman.

Over the past couple of years I have gone through some of TV's most followed series of recent years (Breaking Bad, Lost, Fargo, etc.). I've LOVED it: the great storylines, character progression, scenes that make your jaw literally drop. That being said, the TV series Dexter is my favorite, and it's not close. Never have I been so emotionally attached to something on the television. My mind literally correlates memories and relationships made during that time to where I was at in the series at the time. I finished the show in 4 months, and let me tell ya, it was on my mind the entire time, throughout the entirety of the day. I loathed daily responsibilities that took away Dexter's screen time (very unhealthy looking back, not that I could help it). One year after finishing the show, Dexter still crosses mind on a regular basis (one example: me writing this review at nearly 3am in the morning lol). And oh my am I looking forward to the reboot next fall!

One request: please please please do not be turned off by all of the negative reviews about its "tragic" ending!! Everyone wanted their own perfect ending (impossible), but what the producers put together is perfectly on brand with the 8-season storyline that precedes it. I have to believe true Dexter fans understand this!

Absolutely brilliant. True to Jeff Lindsay's books. The visual contrast between the darkness of Dexter's secret life and and the gloss of Miami adds an almost surreal quality. Character development is right on the money, bringing out the background slowly so one can see the development of Dexter's sociopath personality and his confusion of human behavior compared to his own. Dexter is an actor in his own life; his relationships between co-workers and his personal life are well shown in the video media. The fact that he is a blood splatter expert This is a dark work, but set in the bizarre world of life in Miami is almost believable. Developers of this series should also look to Andrew Vachss's books.